Qualifying Report: INDYCAR GP at Glen

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – A.J. Foyt’s ABC Supply Racing team continues to show improvement in its qualifying efforts even as their hearts are with the people of Houston and southeast Texas, which is suffering through its worst flooding in history.

The #Race4Houston campaign kicked off here with t-shirts being sold onsite at Watkins Glen International and online at indycar.com. The team, decked out in the campaign’s fundraising t-shirts, took a moment to pose with the Texas-based No. 14 which is carrying the #Race4Houston decal for the next two races (as is the No. 4). The net proceeds from the sale of the t-shirts will benefit the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund being administered through the Greater Houston Community Foundation. Direct donations can be made on the GHCF.org website.

Carlos Munoz advanced out of the first round of knockout qualifying for the INDYCAR Grand Prix at The Glen today. But he had to knock out his teammate Conor Daly to do it.

Munoz beat Daly by less than seven-thousandths of a second (.0067) in Group 2 of the first round of qualifying around the 3.37-mile, 11-turn circuit. Daly posted a lap time of 1 minute, 23.5089 seconds (145.278mph) while Munoz edged past him with his time of 1:23.5022 (145.29mph) in the final seconds of qualifying. In the second round of qualifying, Munoz posted his fastest time of 1 minute, 23.2959 seconds (145.649mph). He will start 11th on the inside of row 6 in the No. 14 ABC Supply Chevrolet.

“I pushed the car 100%, maybe lost one tenth because I had some bad shifting on my quickest lap and I think it cost me a position,” Munoz said. “When everything is so close, everything has to be perfect. I think it’s still a good day. We made some changes for qualifying and it helped a lot. I think tomorrow with all the rain, starting toward the front is better because of all the spray. We’ll see how it goes with the weather. When it’s raining, it’s a lottery race.”

Daly was hard on himself despite posting his second best qualifying run on a permanent road course in a Chevy this season. Daly will start 14th on the outside of row 7 in the No. 4 ABC Supply Chevrolet.

“It was very close with Carlos which is nice because we’re fighting to be in the top 12 which is good,” said Daly, who finished fourth in last year’s race here after starting 17th. “We just missed it a little bit. I might have just not recognized that we needed the car we had this morning, but we did three laps that were the same; it might have just been a tire pressure thing. Either way when you fight over a small gap like that, I probably could have done something different about it. It’s a shame. But Carlos is very good at qualifying so it’s good to have him as part of our team because it really pushes me to improve my performance in qualifying. We’ve always been better in the race so we’ll see what happens.”

Alexander Rossi won his first career Verizon P1 Award with a final lap of 1 minute, 22.4639 seconds (147.119mph) in the final seconds of Firestone Fast Six qualifying. Second through sixth were: Scott Dixon, Josef Newgarden, Takuma Sato, Charlie Kimball and Helio Castroneves.

The race will be broadcast tomorrow afternoon on NBC Sports Network starting at 1 p.m. EDT